Media MP Rules Out Screen-Time Laws for Kids

Law-facilitating culture node Matt Hancock MP has ruled out interfering with our current tablet and smartphone babysitting system, with the culture secretary saying there's no need for formal legislation to limit, or attempt to limit, the percentage of their lives that children fritter away watching braying cocks pretending to be excited about unwrapping a Twix on YouTube.

Hancock says his own 11-years-olds don't have phones of their own, so he's perhaps not best to judge the horror scene performance levels some children hit when you try to stop them being near an unlocked device, but there you go. He's the man with responsibility for such things, and he says that copying the French system -- which has guidelines saying the under-threes should have zero screen usage altogether and will soon ban smartphones from schools -- is not necessary.

It's a mums and dads job, basically, who need to start banning the use of the YouTube sidebar of shame as an entertainment portal, says Hancock, who explained: "In some places laws are required. In other places, it’s just that as a society we have to mature to make the most out of this technology, which is amazing and brilliant, rather than use it badly."

Cracking down on social networks and ensuring they are responsible for the content they churn out is as far as any legal action might go. [Guardian]